Angels Negotiate Rendon Buyout: Retirement for the Third Baseman?

Los Angeles Angels and Anthony Rendon Negotiate Contract Termination

The Los Angeles Angels and third baseman Anthony Rendon are in talks to terminate the final year of his contract, a move that could end a seven-year, $245 million deal that didn’t meet expectations for the team. Rendon, who spent the entire 2025 season recovering from hip surgery, is expected to retire. The 35-year-old player is owed $38 million in 2026. Although a possible buyout of that remaining money has not been finalized, the expectation is that Rendon will defer at least part of that amount, which would give the team greater financial flexibility to address the needs of this offseason.

Rendon appeared in only 205 of 810 games in the last five seasons due to injuries. The Angels made Rendon the highest-paid third baseman in baseball in December 2019, after seeing him excel with the Washington Nationals, then World Series champions. If the Angels and Rendon’s agent, Scott Boras, manage to finalize the termination, Rendon will have played in only a quarter of the Angels’ games during the term of that contract, accumulating 3.7 wins above replacement (fWAR) according to FanGraphs. Selected in the first round of the 2011 draft by Rice University, Rendon established himself as one of the best all-around players in the game with an emerging core of players in Washington. He was an exceptional hitter and a gifted defender, and from 2016 to 2019, only nine position players accumulated more fWAR. Rendon had a batting line of .299/.384/.528 in that four-year period. In his final season with the Nationals, he finished third in the National League MVP voting after posting a 1.010 OPS, the highest of his career, along with 34 home runs and a league-leading 126 RBIs, as he became the star in a postseason run that ended with the franchise’s first title. With the focus on him, Rendon’s publicly limited interest in baseball, often admitting that it is not his main priority, that it is simply a job and that he does not care about praise or attention, became an endearing part of his personality. Over the years, it became a referendum on his lack of productivity. Rendon looked a lot like himself during a 2020 season that was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It turned out to be the last time the Angels experienced anything close to Rendon’s best. In the following four years, he batted only .231/.329/.336 and appeared in 205 of 648 possible games. Injuries to his left groin, left knee, left hamstring, left shin, left oblique, lower back, both wrists, and both hips sent him to the injured list. The final blow came on February 12, 2025, when the Angels announced at the start of spring training that Rendon would undergo hip surgery and miss the season. Rendon spent the entire season away from the team, mainly rehabilitating near his home in Houston. His last home run with the team occurred on July 1, 2023. He never played in more than 58 games in a season. Rendon’s contract coincided with Mike Trout’s bad luck with injuries. The lack of availability of these two players, the highest paid on the team, along with the general lack of depth throughout the roster, only accentuated the Angels’ downfall despite the emergence of Shohei Ohtani as a two-way phenomenon. The Angels haven’t reached the playoffs since 2014 and haven’t won a playoff game since 2009. The 2025 season marked their tenth consecutive season with a sub-.500 record. Kurt Suzuki, Rendon’s teammate on the 2019 Nationals, has been named manager of the Angels, the team’s sixth in eight years. Soon, at least, they will be able to move on to third base.